POLITICO's Arena contributors as if anything has been done to prevent another financial crisis.

Craig Shirley, GOP public relations executive

“Whatever has been done cannot be enough if corrupt Wall Street brokers, bond traders and bankers are still walking around free. They were a very large part of the financial meltdown of just one year ago.

“On this matter, President [Barack] Obama is right, and if he was smart (which he is), he would reach out to the anti-Wall Street populist tea party protesters who marched on Washington this past weekend. While they oppose his Big Government initiatives, they are also just as disgusted by the corrupt elements which dominate Wall Street, enabled by their sleazy lobbyists who greased the palms of enough members of Congress to get them to look the other way.

“Even more insulting, taxpayers were forced to pay for the mess created by Wall Street, the politicians and the lobbyists, and yet the taxpayers got nothing in return. Banks are allowed to deduct their losses, but taxpayers are not allowed to deduct their losses in their 401(k)s and other retirement vehicles. Some are more equal indeed.

“The talking heads and enablers in the financial news industry like to congratulate themselves for pushing for [the Troubled Asset Relief Program] as a means of saving the banking industry, but who is to say that had the free market worked, along with the judicial system, that we would not have a better banking system today?

“The end result is the same corrupt players are still in place, and we are all the worse for it.Anyone with any horse sense whatsoever wouldn’t trust these crumbs on Wall Street to get them a stick of gum, much less trust them with their money.”

Charles Calomiris, professor, Columbia Business School

“If one defines the crisis in terms of access to credit, we are not even close to out of the woods yet — and this is probably the source of continuing unease and limited confidence by the public. Small-business and consumer access to credit is inadequate, overall credit growth is anemic, and it is important to focus on credit flows and terms of lending other than interest rates when evaluating access to credit (down payment requirements on mortgages, the size of credit balances granted, etc.). Those terms are not very favorable right now. And the shocks to bank capital and consumers’ finances have not ended.”

Dean Baker, Center for Economic and Policy Research

“I am confident they have laid the basis for the next meltdown. The steps taken to date reinforce all the factors that gave us this meltdown. First, ‘too big to fail’ is now official policy. Everyone knows Goldman, Citi, Bank of America, etc., will not be allowed to fail. As a result, they have much greater access to private capital markets to fuel their speculative behavior. And those of us who believe in markets should assume they will use it.”

Amitai Etzioni, professor, George Washington University

“My confidence is so small it cannot be measured. The opposition is united and strong politically and in tune with the American conservative (anti-government) majority. The pro-reform forces are divided, marching to different drummers. Add Obama’s negotiation style, long on very welcome communitarian sentiments and great speeches, very short on backing up soft power with the needed hard stuff. We can always pray that Wall Street will come to its senses, but please do not hold your breath; you will turn very blue.”